Like the thousands of retreatants who flocked to Worth Abbey in Sussex, England, after viewing a recent television series on the Benedictine monastery, Religious Education Congress participants are signing up in droves for two workshops given by the monastery's abbot on finding sanctuary and happiness in today's fast-paced culture.
Abbot Christopher Jamison's Congress workshops at the Anaheim Convention Center on Feb. 27-28 offering monastic steps for a fulfilling life are based on his bestselling book, "Finding Sanctuary," and his newest book, "Finding Happiness." In a consumerized world where many people say their life is too materialistic and superficial, the abbot's books with their call to alternative approaches to how individuals live life and view happiness have struck a nerve.
Speaking with The Tidings by phone from the monastery a couple of weeks before beginning his U.S. tour, which includes pre-R.E. Congress talks at St. James Church in Redondo Beach (Feb. 21), Boston College (Feb. 23) and The Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York (Feb. 24), the abbot says his second book has generated intense interest since its publication in the United Kingdom last year occurred right before the devastating global credit crisis.
Last October, he gave 20 radio interviews in the space of a month talking about the credit crisis as a reflection of a spiritual virtues' crisis. "We had a credit crunch because we had a virtues crunch. Temperance [in banking and other industries] ceased to be considered a key virtue," and those in leadership who were aware of impending disaster "lacked courage" in taking the necessary steps to prevent it, he said.
He decided to write "Finding Happiness" because he was concerned with misleading themes in contemporary "happiness" literature. He wanted to challenge the belief encouraged in today's consumer culture that happiness comes with pleasure and can be pursued as a goal.
"If you make happiness the goal of life, you will not find it … and if children are taught that happiness is pleasure, they will have no interest in spiritual things," said Abbot Christopher.
In the book, he turns to monastic wisdom to offer alternative approaches to how people can view happiness: as a gift, not an achievement, the fruit of giving and receiving blessings. "We have to choose what happiness is. Equating happiness with pleasure is very unthinking," he declared.
He urges an understanding of human nature and its vices --- listed in the book as Eight Thoughts: acedia (spiritual carelessness), gluttony, lust, greed, anger, sadness, vanity and pride. Each of the eight thoughts has an antidote, he explains. "We have to create a greater awareness that there are normal thoughts which have to be countered --- not given free expression…
"Religion offers a spirituality that is genuinely free and liberating," said the abbot. "We must cultivate awareness that we have to choose our version of happiness rather than have it be dictated to us" by the culture, he added. |